Studied all kinds of writer workshops and advice during the last weeks

Your physical absence from my life is made by hell, and I am proud that you and I never would retort to such treatment of others. How these people can think that they will be blessed after doing this to others, is beyond me. Guess they think that when they go to church or make a donation to some kind of charity, God will forgive them. Well, it doesn’t work that way. When the victims don’t forgive, they have to live with what they did to the end of the times, feeling like the lice they are and cutting away from their own happiness accordingly.

That is not what I have studied in writer workshops and on writer blogs, Marty. 😉 Above is my own wisdom.

Some of the advice by writers to others is useful, others not so much.

Take for example the advice that one should never portray a character that has no flaws because the reader can’t identify with a person who has no flaws. Really? What is wrong with mankind if it can’t identify itself with a truly good person?

Of course, characters should never be flat, but personally, I am tired of reading about and watching “very smart detectives who solve all and any problems but betray their wives and forget to pick up the baby from daycare”. In reality, such a detective will not he smart but stupid. Tonescale is real. If one is really smart and capable, he will also be as smart to know what happens if he betrays his wife and forgets to pick up the baby from day care.

On the other side, I have heard grown men (yes, men) referring again and again to Jane Austin novels as Pride and Prejudice and how much they like them.

This is what Wikipedia says about the one character: Elizabeth is described as an intelligent young woman, with “a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous”. She often presents a playful good-natured impertinence that does not offend. Early in the novel she is depicted as being personally proud of her wit and her accuracy in judging the social behaviour and intentions of others. Elizabeth is her father’s favourite, described by him as having “something more of quickness than her sisters”. Elizabeth is often upset and embarrassed by the impropriety and silliness of her mother and three younger sisters (that is no flaw on her behalf). Within her neighbourhood Elizabeth is considered a beauty and a charming young woman with “fine eyes”, to which Mr. Darcy is first drawn. Darcy is later attracted more particularly to her “light and pleasing” figure, the “easy playfulness” of her manners, her mind and personality, and eventually considers her “one of the handsomest women” in his acquaintance.

Okay, it is a story that was written in 1813, but as people still refer to it and as it was made into movies plenty of times, a character who is good, never will be out of fashion.

In Sense and Sensibility, Eleanor Dashwood is good and selfless too. There is a communication problem (sigh) between Edward Ferrars but I don’t consider her flawed.

I also saw a rare movie (can’t recall the name, something with inheritance…) in which the heroine was completely good and selfless, and I really liked that movie. Some people around her were bad but she wasn’t. So, I understand why some writers consider a truly good character a problem.

If people indeed are not relating to characters that are good, they have to change something on their own characters. The jury is also not if some just make up that characters must be flawed because their’s is. In real life, nobody wants to have a partner who is flawed. People would thank on their knees if their partner isn’t flawed.

Yes, we live in a wild world and there is death. But they create characters for no other reasons that they have to die to make readers or the viewers feel lousy. Thank you very much. As if happy endings would be forbidden or cheesy.

The Hunger Games are all about dying apparently, nevertheless, if for example Finnick would have survived the last explosion, it would not have changed the plot and the story line.

In real life, everyone wants a happy ending for him- or herself. In novels we shouldn’t get it? And people have to die even if it doesn’t matter to the plot?

Just saying, Marty…

Otherwise, writing fiction really is fun. I wish I would have more time for it. I am always interrupted for weeks or even months! And I don’t write fiction like Jane Austin. I am working on something that is entirely different, but I always think I should try it one day as I enjoy reading and watching her kind of stories where characters matter.

How are you feeling? I hope life isn’t brutal to you. I wish I could change your life with a chapter of fiction. I would write you a big and fat happy ending in it, right now! It doesn’t matter if others don’t like it. You deserve it.

It often feels like winter is already fading. The x-mas parcel that my family sent me with express in middle of December from Germany was still not forwarded by Germany to the USA. Typical.